Green.
It’s the color of money..envy..Ireland..Kremit THE frog..Robin Hood’s underpants..my face during a cruise without Dramamine AND the waters of Lake Hendricks 90% of the time.
Okay Okay..the locals might dispute that..but it’s been my experience and an important reason for making what I’m about to report even more incredible. But, let’s begin at the beginning.
As most of you know, Steve Hemmingsen is a longtime resident of Hendricks, Minnesota having built his own cabin along the North Shore back in the 80’s which he’s been adding on to ever since.
Much like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Randolph Hearst and Marian Davies..Steve and Betty Hemmingsen were quite well known for the summer lakeside parties they threw for celebrities.
Well, okay people who worked at Keloland TV. An invitation to one of these soirees was considered rather special coming from the top dog Anchorman/News Director so everybody fortunate enough to receive one showed up with food, booze, bathing suits and a party attitude.
It was toward the conclusion of just such a party involving plenty of carousing on land and in the water that Jaine Andrews noticed something missing from the left hand of her husband, Gary. A circle of white skin now surrounded the tanned finger where five years ago she had placed a gold and diamond wedding band. “ Honey..where’s your ring?” she shrieked. His poor jaw dropped and a pathetic posse was rounded up.
All, who could still navigate in the twilight, joined in the futile search of Hendricks’ murky waters but the only clear water that night was running down the cheeks of the young couple. It could have slipped off anywhere…swimming..water skiing..running around on the beach. But it was a foregone conclusion that it was gone forever and they both knew why. Gary had been battling a troublesome appendix which led to surgery. He’d lost a lot of weight. The wedding ring had gotten pretty loose. He meant to take it off. Forgot. Damn..Dog House.
Oh yeah..Green.
Hendricks residents don’t like you to talk about it..but most of the time the lake that bears the town’s name is just that..green. That’s one of the reasons residents are fighting so hard to keep a big cattle operation from being built upstream from the lake in Brookings County; aggravating an already annoying problem.
But it’s not ALWAYS green and on Labor Day, Darice Huber..who lives right next door to Hemmingsen.. was taking advantage of the beautiful weather and wading with her grandson in the crystal clear waters of the lake when she looked down and saw what gold miners used to call a “flash in the pan.” Glistening about 8 inches below the surface was a gold ring. She snatched it up wondering who it could belong to. She decided to wait until Hemmingsen returned home to help in the investigation.
Darice Huber who found the ring.
The beach area where the ring was found. That’s Steve Hemmingsen’s place just visible on the far right.
“It was the craziest thing when Steve first said he didn’t know of anybody except..maybe 25 years or so ago, a co-worker lost a ring at a party here.” Darice Huber told me. “ I asked Steve if he’d do some checking. “I mean, what are the odds of it turning up right here on the shore after so long?” Huber said.”
After Steve sent Jaine an e-mail photo of the ring, she had to think a bit trying to remember what the band looked like. “There was an engraving inside..did you find an engraving?” Jaine asked. Sure enough when Steve and Darice checked with a magnifying glass there it was; the couple’s initials and wedding date etched by the jeweler way back when.
“Steve and I were flabbergasted,” Huber said.
And here it is after a quarter century underwater being scraped around by ice, sand and time. No wonder gold is so precious.
It takes quite a bit to impress my old curmudgeon pal Hemmingsen but when we talked he had to admit what an “Incredible long shot” this was. “When you consider how every spring the ice shoves the shoreline all over the place. I have to have a guy with a skid loader come in most years to straighten it out. There’s just no way that ring hasn’t been on a long journey and to end up just a few feet from my place in plain sight. Well, God works in mysterious ways.” No, Steve never mentioned God but he was every bit as astounded as Darice and Jaine who, by the way has long since forgiven Gary for losing the original. In fact, Jaine actually did buy Gary a new band a few years later and another on their 25th anniversary. Now he has three.
This was Jaine and Gary’s wedding day. You can tell they took photos before the ceremony though..no rings yet.
So what’s to become of this miracle ring that has returned from the depths in time for their 30th anniversary?
“I don’t know” she says. “I’m sure it won’t fit anymore but after all the trouble it’s gone to getting home we better have it enlarged so Gary can wear it on his right ring finger.
Jaine Andrews Goldade models Gary’s long lost wedding band.
“But you know there’s another bonus to all this. It’s been way too long since we’ve had a Kelo party at Hemmingsen’s cabin and high time for another.”
We’ll just either leave the rings home or stay on the deck and sip wine all evening. The water’s probably too green anyway.